According to this criterion, the longest human lifespan is that of Jeanne Calment of France (1875–1997), who lived to the age of 122 years, 164 days. She met Vincent van Gogh when she was 12 or 13.[1] She received news media attention in 1985, after turning 110. Subsequent investigation found documentation for Calment's age, beyond any reasonable question, in the records of her native city, Arles, France.[2] More evidence of Calment's lifespan has been produced than for any other supercentenarian; her case serves as an archetype in the methodology for verifying the ages of the world's oldest people.[3]

Since the death of 116-year-old Susannah Mushatt Jones of the United States on 13 May 2016,[a] 117-year-old Emma Morano of Italy, born 29 November 1899, is the oldest living person in the world whose age has been documented. Since the death of 112-year-old Yasutaro Koide of Japan on 19 January 2016, 113-year-old Yisrael Kristal of Israel, born 15 September 1903, is the world's oldest living man.

Chronological list of the oldest known living person since 1955

This list is copied from the Gerontology Research Group's list of the World's Oldest Person Titleholders.[27] As the oldest living person is usually a woman, a sequence of oldest women would be nearly redundant to this list. A sequence of oldest living men follows this sequence.